1st Loan - Advice Please! :)

laurayounger

Hi,

I'm an 18 year old musician and I'm thinking about getting a 10k loan to pay to get an album of my music recorded and promoted. I've never had a loan or credit card before, I don't have a credit history. Also as a musician my income is not entirely regular, obviously I only get paid when I can get the paid gigs, I've just started teaching which should generate a more regular income....Once the album is done it will start paying for itself as I sell the cds.

What would be the best way to go about getting the money? a loan or a credit card? Or get a credit card for a few months to build a good credit history and then apply for a loan? Are there any banks/loans that cater well for young people starting up in business?

Helpful advice would be much appreciated, thanks,
Laura

CHR15

Even over a fairly lengthy time, say 4 years, you will be paying about £300 per month off.

By the sounds of your irregular income it appears as if you will come nowhere near being able to afford that kind of loan.

Have you given much thought to how you will pay the money back?

I dont think you can pin too much on the potential sale of CD's.
Once you sell one, it is easily copied, uploaded, downloaded etc.

Going £10k in debt at 18years old is not a good idea, you will never get out of it.

laurayounger

Paying it back is not a problem it's just getting it in the first place. I can get £150 for a one hour gig, £20/hour for singing lessons and there's demand for the Cd already, I have toured the UK and also Boston and New York selling Cds with my old material on, I have sold around 500 of these so far but my fanbase wants recordings of all my new material. Also Cds sell at showcases and other unpaid gigs which I have no lack of. My point is that I don't have a regular amount of money going into my bank account, I get paid mostly in cash so a lot of the time I don't bother putting it into the bank at all and there's no record of it - I didn't think about it before but now I realise that it's a problem in terms of proving my income.

I've tried The Princes Trust but they could only loan around £3000 and only if that loan covered the majority of the money I need, they also said that I'm not "disadvantaged enough" because I had good exam grades and wrote a good business plan (which won't work unless I can get the money in the first place...)